Robert W. Fieseler

In Tinderbox: The Untold Story of the Up Stairs Lounge Fire and the Rise of Gay Liberation, Robert W. Fieseler chronicles the tragic fire at the Up Stairs Lounge gay bar in June 1973 that claimed the lives of thirty-two patrons, helping to inspire a generation of LGBT activists through the 1970s and early 1980s. Fieseler compares the fire’s influence on social activism to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911 and the firebombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in 1963 (p. show more xxx). He argues, “The tragedy proved to be a literal tinderbox, an inferno that destroyed a location, as well as a political tinderbox in the repression it exposed, of a nation refusing to acknowledge the very fact that homosexuals existed, and, finally, a psychological tinderbox in its spotlighting of an underclass of closeted gays who feared defining themselves as a minority group, lest they attract attention. By degrees. some survivors of the fire faced a fate more scandalous than that of the deceased: outed after their names were published in newspapers shamed into silence by straights and fellow gays wishing to hurry past the event and hobbled by post-traumatic stress” (p. xxxvi).

Prior to the fire, the gay community of New Orleans may have consisted of as many as 75,000, but the vast majority were closeted and most establishments prided themselves on their discretion (p. 16). Fieseler writes, “In such a society, built not on morality or rule of law but on social exchanges, the closet came advertised as functional and preferable. Those who accepted closeted lives would resist even identifying with the closet” (p. 29). However, “Despite its flamboyant reputation, resulting from the presence of drag queens and men in extravagant costume during Mardi Gras season, New Orleans had witnessed frequent persecutions of openly gay residents, especially effeminate "jennie-men" or cross-dressers who could or would not conceal their differences” (p. 29). After the fire, newspapers initially resisted using the terms “homosexual” or “gay” in describing the fire’s victims. As a result, Fieseler notes, “That a specific group had possibly been targeted, by whom, and for what reason were not questions that readers could ponder as they learned about a random bar fire. Deprived of the homosexual context, readers could not be expected to glean anything from the graphic pictures of burnt corpses, which, astonishingly, did not pose the same threat to so-called considerations of taste as one printed word” (p. 120).

Leaders like Morris Kight seized the initiative to care for the victims through fundraising and other efforts. He advocated for a group that brought LGBT men and women together in support of a single cause. As Fieseler notes, “the Gay Liberation movement transcended regionalism and rancor to reach cohesion on a single topic, other than the Stonewall Inn, for the first time. Political groups, including the Gay Activists Alliance (GAA), joined forces with service groups, including the Gay Community Services Center of Los Angeles (GCSC), and religious networks, extending from the MCC to the recently formed New York Gay Synagogue” (p. 151). Troy Perry used the memorial service to further advocate for a community that had “dignity” as human beings and held their heads high (p. 172). Gay bars and clubs across the United States observed a National Day of Mourning in 1973, though New Orleans bars remained open on the day (p. 177). While groups beyond New Orleans pushed for gay liberation, including a later-overturned ordinance to outlaw discrimination in Dade County, Florida, conservative forces pushed back in the form of Anita Bryant (p. 228). Fieseler writes, “Gay Liberation leaders rebounded with ire. Sensing weakness in an opposition built around one core personality, gay groups retaliated directly against Bryant and strategized ways to kneecap her where it counted: in her professional ability to reap rewards from her celebrity. The National Gay Task Force called for a universal boycott of orange juice. Seventy percent of Bryant's concert bookings canceled” (p. 230).

Fieseler concludes, “It goes without saying that, since 1995, when Dexter Brecht first spoke as champion of the Up Stairs Lounge, homosexuality had made the leap from fringe culture into the mainstream. By 2002, according to National Opinion Research Center surveys, nearly one-third of Americans believed homosexual relations to be ‘not wrong at all,’ a gain from the mid-1990s and a nearly a threefold increase from 1973” (p. 248). Though there would be setbacks, including the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, the eventual SCOTUS decisions in Lawrence v. Texas (2003) and Obergfell v. Hodges (2015) offered hope to the remaining survivors and to those who followed them (p. 249, 253). show less

American LGBT history from prior to the AIDS crisis is getting more of its due in recent years, and this was an excellent contribution. Basically, New Orleans in the early 1970s was only tenuously welcoming to gay and trans people by virtue of being a large-ish city with many transplants; it was still heavily religious and without the large out community of San Francisco or New York. The book reviews where these people went for companionship, including not just the obvious bars but also a show more church congregation and relatively tolerant neighborhoods. The bar in the title was part of that, and its tragic end in 1973 is just part of this story.

There was also more nuance than just the welcoming-niche-networks vs. disapproval-by-everyone-else dichotomy, which Fieseler told thoroughly. For example, the doctors in charge at Charity Hospital decided definitively to open a new ward early to treat the victims, and used that space to help shield some of the burn victims from the negative publicity about being found in a gay bar while they recovered.

Part of the real tragedy is that some of the fire victims don't get much of their story told, because no one really knew who they were. The identity of one was finally confirmed almost 40 years after the fire, a small but important contribution to that LGBT history I mentioned at the start. show less

Having not known of the Up Stairs Lounge Fire, this book was an excellent history which detailed the event, the context, and placed the fire within the larger story of gay rights. I also appreciated the characterization of New Orleans and the communities which call that city home (I visited New Orleans several years ago and loved the city). The comparison, at the beginning of the book, of the Up Stairs Fire and the Pulse Nightclub Shooting in 2016 are also striking. I know pieces of this show more story (elements touch on recent events), but this book provides a deeper historical context for events. A excellent read for those interested in the history of gay rights in the United States. show less

Almost all gay people who were alive in 1976 know of the horrific Up Stairs fire in New Orleans. This book recounts those terrible moments in great detail. The author even names a suspect (never convicted). The most amazing thing is the denial anything ever happened by the City of New Orleans (especially NOPD). They were just gays. We don't want to talk about it.